There were two brothers who were disciples of the Baal Shem Tov who were brilliant Torah scholars. They had a sister of marriageable age and they went to the Baal Shem Tov to ask him for a brocha that she should find her proper husband quickly. The Baal Shem Tov responded by writing down the name of the boy who is intended for her, and the name of the village he lives in, and sent the brothers off to go arrange for the marriage! They told their sister what happened, and she was happy to go along with the Baal Shem Tov’s instructions. The three of them traveled to the village.
They found the village, and they were pointed to the direction of this boy. We’ll call him Moshe. Moshe made a great impression as a sweet and kind fellow, but it quickly becomes clear that he was a complete ignoramus who didn’t even know aleph-beis, and certainly didn’t seem like a match for a girl from a family of Torah scholars! But they had complete faith in the Baal Shem Tov, and agreed to the marriage. The wedding took place in the village where the girl was from. The Baal Shem Tov was there by one of the sheva brochos, and he asked Moshe to share words of Torah as was customary in that area. A surprised Moshe turned to the Baal Shem Tov and stammered that he was completely unlearned and certainly could not string together a sensible d’var Torah! The Baal Shem Tov responded by taking out his handkerchief, and passed it over Moshe’s face. Moshe’s face lit up and he immediately started sharing beautiful and complex Torah ideas that left the audience spellbound. After 30 minutes of non-stop Torah, Moshe fizzled out, and then abruptly stopped and sat down, unsure of what just happened, and he fell back into his regular ignorant self. The same exact scene repeated itself for every other day of sheva brochos.
After sheva brochos, the Baal Shem Tov called Moshe in, and told him as follows: “You are probably thinking that I performed a miracle every night, by waving my handkerchief and giving you the supernatural ability to share sophisticated Torah ideas. But you should know that that would be inaccurate. You are a Yid, and your neshamah is the neshamah of a Torah scholar. It happens to be that this Torah scholar neshamah became covered in many layers because of the many years of ignorance and lack of Jewish education. All I did, for that half hour, was reveal the true essence of your soul, which once spilled over with beautiful words of Torah. Now that you know who you really are, go and peel off those layers, and uncover your talmid chacham soul. Go and learn Torah!
This lesson is true for every single Jew. Our essence is pure and holy, we are a chelek Elokei Mima’al mamash, a living piece of Godliness. We don’t need to go find holiness – it is already within us. All we need to do is uncover it!
This article was found in Nekuda Tova Issue 5.